Enigmatic artist RØRY has a career that’s operated in reverse. While most people embark on a musical vocation in their teens, RØRY has flipped that on its head and reached the peak of creativity while recently turning 40. Awarded the title of “Best UK Breakthrough Artist” at the Heavy Music Awards 2024, RØRY has been on an upward trajectory since releasing debut EP (under the RØRY moniker) in 2022 and Restoration is sure to propel RØRY towards the stars. Featuring ten tenacious tracks, this is an empowering experience that’s made for everybody who’s been marginalised and maligned.
Rock music is a culture that’s been built around youth, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing it can be exclusionary, and that’s precisely what good rock music has always fought against. There could be numerous reasons while a person comes to music late in life, but whatever the cause, they bring a wealth of experience and that’s the main ingredient you’ll find in each of the ten tracks comprising Restoration. After a life full of trauma, RØRY found solace and strength in therapy, and you get the feeling that this album is an extension of that process, it finds RØRY in confessional mode, bravely bearing wounds so they might heal and that’s exactly what the opening track evidences. You might feel that a lifetime of addiction, depression and family trauma would have knocked RØRY out for the count…but not a bit of it! Despite its lowercase title, ‘if pain could talk what would it say’ finds RØRY in defiant mode, using music as a kind of primal scream therapy and despite speeding past in just 130 seconds, makes an emotional experience for both artist and listener.
If you dispel any preconceived ideas my introduction might have raised and listen to Restoration with an open mind, then age isn’t really a consideration; the energy radiating from these grooves is just what you’d expect from an artist starting out on a career. There’s plenty of neat ideas on display; RØRY’s vocal inflections of ‘WOLVES’ bring to mind Sinéad O’Connor and RØRY uses the voice as an instrument and it entwines the melody like ivy. There’s musical explosions during ‘hold on’ that keeps things fresh and adds another bold splash to an already technicolour experience. Evolving from acoustic beginnings, ‘The Atheist’ is a thoughtful closer but one which suggests there’s much more to come.
- Restoration is released via Sadcøre on 31st January 2025.
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Track List:
1. if pain could talk, what would it say
2. In the Bible
3. WOLVES
4. hold on (ft. Roxanne Emery)
5. BLOSSOM
6. Sherlock Holmes
7. One Drink Away
8. MORALITY $UICIDE
9. SORRY I’M LATE
10. The Atheist
